THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



133 



We have a number of indigenous geraniums, seven in all, 

 chiefly shrubby perennials, and largely confined to the high 

 mountains of Maui and Hawaii. The flowers are white and 

 not especially noticeable. One species, G. arhoreum, often 

 developes a trunk of three to four inches in diameter. Its 

 flowers are dull red, in cymes on short lateral shoots. 



Our two buttercups, Ranunciihis Mauiensis and R. 

 Hawaiiensis, are both perennial, the former a spreading shrub, 

 the latter erect and two to four feet high. Both are upland 

 forms ; Mauiensis occurs on all the islands above two thousand 

 feet elevation; Hatwaiiensis is confined to East Maui and 

 Hawaii, above four thousand feet elevation. Both have bright 

 yellow flowers; those of Mauiensis are small and in diffuse 

 open panicles; those of Hararauensis are larger and showier, 

 and massed in closed corymbs. The basal leaves of each are on 

 petioles a foot long, and have dissected blades from four to six 

 inches in diameter. In the tropics the Ranunculus group is 

 largely restricted to the higher mountains, and our Hawaiian 

 species exemplify this rule. 



Two endemic labiate genera that are widely scattered 

 through the woodlands and mountains are Phyllostegia, with 

 about sixteen species, and Stemgyne, with about eighteen. The 

 number of species is approximate, as there is much variation, 

 and numerous forms are weakly defined. They are all branching 

 undershrubs, some prostrate, others decumbent, and others 

 erect and trailing over the surrounding vegetation. The 

 flowers are small and clustered in axillary and terminal 

 racemes and panicles. The Fhyllostegias have white flowers, 

 often suffused with purplish or pinkish; those of the 

 Stenogynes are either greenish yellow or purplish red. These 

 plants grow chiefly in the higher levels of the rain forest, and 

 illumine many of the dark and otherwise gloomy ravines with 

 their pleasant color masses. 



